Reporter: It's been nearly a month since 39-year-old tiffiny bray disappeared from small town fletcher, oklahoma. Her only communication, a text message sent to fiancee chad McGUIRE SAYING SHE WAS Kidnapped. Okay, amanda. We want to show you tiffiny's picture one more time. If you see her, call police immediately. Reporter: A massive manhunt is underway, special agent richard goss and his team think tiffiny's secret online friend steve thomas may know something, so they track his cell phone to this motel in corpus christi, texas. We had to find her, and ensure that she was safe as quickly as we could. Reporter: So imagine their surprise when they bust into this room and find tiffiny's only injury is a sunburn. I would say positively when we walked into the motel room and she was safe and sound. We knew it had all been a hoax. Reporter: A wild goose chase. Turns out tiffiny is no kidnap victim, but a reluctant bride with a bad case of cold feet. She agreed to tell us her story for the first time, explaining that she dreamed of more than cooking and cleaning for chad. I mean chad was a nice guy. I just was not happy with my life. Reporter: So why didn't you just break it off say it was a big mistake? I can't answer it. I just felt like I couldn't breathe anymore. Reporter: And you felt you couldn't say that to your fiancee? Mm-hmm. Reporter: So one morning you just woke up. No, I actually had thought about it. Few days prior to it, and just said, that's it, this is what I'm gonna do. Reporter: Her plan, if you can call it that, began that july morning. I got up, got ready. I said I'm going to town. Reporter: Instead she takes a detour, a huge one, in chad's truck. She cruises 70 miles up i-44 to an oklahoma city pawn shop and literally sells off her fiance's heart -- his heart necklace that is. How much did you get for the necklace? It was only like $60 maybe. Reporter: Chump change. That would barely pay for a tank of gas. So later off goes that $2,500 engagement ring to the pawn shop, too. What's going through your mind as you're driving? The whole time I was driving I was shaking. I was so confused. I thought I have this address for steve in texas. That's where I'll go. Reporter: Steve -- that online friend with a passion for medieval attire -- he was dreaming of making a future with his oklahoma princess. And had no idea she wasn't available. This must have been a powerful connection with this guy in texas, for you to just drop everything and run to him? It was just somewhere to go. It was my escape. It was my way out. Reporter: You had to be thinking, somebody might find me, spot me. I mean, all I was doing was leaving. In my thought it wasn't against the law to take off and leave and not tell anybody where I was going. Reporter: But what about that desperate text for help? Why'd you do that? Maybe it was me, crying out, somehow. I, I don't know. Reporter: So it didn't occur the police would get involved. No -- I was -- no, I had no idea. Reporter: The duo headed south to coastal corpus christi to find a fresh start. But their new life is not exactly camelot. The cash-strapped couple check into this low-rent motel where room 206 runs $200 a week. Yes, just like garth brooks put it -- I've got friends in low places. Where the whiskey drowns. Reporter: What did you do with yourself those days? Absolutely nothing. Once, I think we went out shopping. Occasionally we'd go to fast food or something like that. Reporter: It was a far cry from the fancy mexican vacation she'd just taken with her fiance chad. Reporter: Are you feeling bad at all? I wasn't in that, that clear state of mind, I guess. I guess you try to block that out somehow. Reporter: But there' s no blocking the cell phone signal of her texas squire. Soon there is someone at the door and it's not room service. Someone knocked at the door, and it was the osbi. Reporter: Surrounded by unhappy state agents, it time for a reality check. I was immediately of course scared. You escape from something and not realize how bad you're hurting everybody around you. So it's actually very selfish. This morning they found her in corpus christi with a companion. Reporter: Her companion steve wasn't part of the hoax. But tiffiny kept him in the dark. After logging 6500 miles spending 685 manhours and more than $34,000 on the case, inspector goss isn't inclined to forgive. When we arrested tiffiny bright, I had no sympathy for her at all. The number one cause of death in law enforcement is traffic accidents. I'll be darned if one of my agents or a law enforcement officer should lose his life for a game. Reporter: Tiffiny is arrested for taking chad's truck and falsely reporting a crime. I was happy I wasn't a suspect and I was glad she was found all right. I wasn't too happy. Reporter: Neither was tommy lewis. I got a phone call from my best friend, telling me we found tiffiny, and she's alive. And at first I was just angry at her. Oh, my god, what was she thinking? How could she do this to us? Reporter: Tiffiny's family asked the same question. Though they bailed her out after five weeks in jail, relatives kept a tight leash on the absentee bride. I was allowed to go to work and go straight home. Reporter: It sounds like they had trouble trusting you. Mh-hmm. So I just ended up moving out. So no, I don't have a relationship with my family. Reporter: Tiffany was able to cut a deal with local prosecutors -- no more jail time for the charges she faced as long as she pays back the $34,000 spent on her search. Today an emotional finale to the tiffany bray case is two years in the making. Reporter: Today she's working 60 hour weeks to settle up with the osbi, $560 a month for the next five years. I'm very grateful that they did find me because I don't even know to this day where I'd be if they wouldn't have found me. I went to counseling. Because the guilt alone will eat at you every single day. Reporter: Suffice to say, the wedding was off, but chad's achy breaky heart seems to have mended quickly. If they hadn't come and got her stuff, I was gonna have a runaway bride garage sale. And guess what? There's a happy ending to this tangled love story. Remember tommy, tiffiny's family friend? Well -- we just kinda started hanging out more. And enjoying each other's company. I invited her to church, and the relationship kind of blossomed. Never forget that history and always use it to guide ourselves in the future. Reporter: And soon, those church bells were ringing for them! Were you worried on the wedding day about whether she was going to show? I'd be lying if I said it didn't cross my mind. Reporter: What was it you found in this relationship that you felt you didn't have in your life before? Love. Never felt like I had that before. The question tonight would you have forgiven tiffiny? Tweet me use the #20/20 and wait

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

{"id":21418777,"title":"Fiancee's Kidnapping Revealed as a Hoax","duration":"7:25","description":"Act 2: Authorities discover Tiffiny Bray faked her own kidnapping and left Oklahoma for Texas.","section":"2020","mediaType":"Default"}